Dawgs By Nature
As a generally optimistic person, fan, and media member, I can almost always figure out a way to understand why a team made a move that they did. For me, it is a much more enjoyable way to go about sports, instead of spending a ton of energy on how things could go wrong.
That being said, the Cleveland Browns have also spent most of my adult lifetime making decisions that blew up in their face, often predictably bad. Many of us Browns fans haven’t had to imagine ways things would fail; we just had to wait for them to fail.
On Monday, I shared the five moves from Cleveland’s recent offseason that I loved. Even those moves required some level of optimistic thinking. Today, we flip the coin to the other side and look at the things that are concerning. Full disclosure: I hope the Browns prove me wrong in every single one of these concerns. I want nothing but great things for the team and, more importantly, the fanbase.
That being said, I have to be honest about decisions that at least had me pause my giddy optimism:
I have no clue if Monken will be a good head coach, but I do know that no one else in the NFL has hired him for the position and rarely has he even made it to the final stage with any other team. That alone causes pause. Cleveland has long done things no other team has done, and it has never (rarely?) worked out. Monken is just the next choice that fits that bill.
To be frank, none of the other options were certain home runs either. As shared on Monday, an offensive-minded coach was a positive thing, but I would have much preferred a younger guy who could grow with the group. My entire goal is that the Browns win a Super Bowl, so I’m more willing to take upside, risky swings.
Since the hiring of Monken and Schwartz’s departure, it seems like the team clearly wanted to hire an offensive-minded guy as head coach. If so, the Browns should not have strung Schwartz along, should not have made him a finalist for the job, and should have been far more upfront with him.
It might work out in the end, with new DC Mike Rutenberg bringing a more varied, flexible system for Cleveland’s defense, but even that will be hard to tell given the departure of Myles Garrett via trade.
Drafting Spencer Fano fell on the “loved” list, but the rest of the offensive line revamp at least gives reason for pause. It is very rare that a quality offensive lineman is available in the NFL. That the Houston Texans were willing to trade away Tytus Howard, and the Los Angeles Chargers and Green Bay Packers were willing to let Zion Johnson and Elgton Jenkins walk away in free agency...
